Harry Potter and the Azkaban Rebellion
by Ceilinh
Summary: HG & RH. Harry, Ron, Hermione and several other orders members being held in Azkaban plan a rebellion. Meanwhile on the outside, Ginny, Neville and Luna have plans of their own. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall are missing in action.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. Blah, blah, blah.

Prologue

Ron and Hermione were being shipped to Azkaban. They were not the first to go and they would not be the last. Too many Order members had already been betrayed into the hands of the Dementors at Azkaban. It was quite plain to any who were not keeping their heads in the sand that Voldemort and his Death Eaters were pulling the puppet strings of the Ministry of Magic. Not so much as one Death Eater had been sent to Azkaban in the past five months, but it seemed that more and more of their adversaries were finding themselves exiled to that dread island.

"At least we might see Harry again," Ron tried to look on the bright side. His comment did not succeed in cheering Hermione.

"Not likely," she answered, dejection evident in her tone, "I'd wager they'll want to keep us separate as much as possible- until of course they've broken us..." she lapsed into silence.

Ron sighed, he wished that there was something he could do for her. They had come to depend on each other more and more over the course of the year. With Harry and so many of the other Order Members locked away at Azkaban, they hadn't had many other places to turn. Ron had fallen in love with Hermione. He finally admitted it to himself. He would die if anything happened to her- but not until he made the person who hurt her pay with their own life.

His thoughts ambled along directionlessly for a while before he found himself thinking about his sister. Poor Ginny. He knew she was in love with Harry. Everyone did. He smiled ruefully to himself, Ginny had loved Harry since the first moment she set eyes on him. It had devastated her when he was taken. And now Ron and Hermione couldn't even be there to help her get through the hard time.

Ron looked over at Hermione. She was pale and gray with dark circles underneath her hollow eyes. Her hair was scraggly and unkempt- they had both been in custody at the Ministry of Magic for several days (Ron wasn't quite sure how many) waiting for their trial. Neither had been allowed to bathe in all that time. Or to testify. The ministry seemed to have given up even the pretence to holding fair trials. It was common knowledge that anyone sympathetic to the Order's cause risked being sent to Azkaban. Many Hogwarts professors had been forced to go into hiding. Not a soul had seen hide or hair of Dumbledore and McGonagall in at least two months. Others were missing too, but there were rumours that not everyone had disappeared of their own accord...

"Hermione," Ron tried to get her attention, "Hermione, I think we're almost there," she didn't answer. Ron was worried about her. She had been treated even more poorly than he had. He wasn't entirely certain what had been done to her, but clearly it was nothing good. He wished he could take away her pain.

"Hai!" he called to the nearest of their guards, an auror with a slightly glazed countenance. It didn't take any great mind to see that the man was clearly out of his head, probably under Imperius, "Hai, you stupid git!" he called again. The man didn't respond. His brain had probably become damaged trying to fight off the Imperius curse. It affected some people that way. Ron had tried of and on during the interminable boatride to the dread island of Azkaban to attract his attention, all to no avail. Now he satisfied himself by simply insulting the feeble minded pawn. He probably didn't really deserve it. He had probably been a good man and a good auror before his brain had been fried, but Ron was past caring, "Mind untying me, would you?" he continued, "My nose had got an itch. Hai! I'm talking to you!" he struggled a bit in his bonds, "Well, if you won't untie me, then would you come over here so I can kick you? I think I might be able to manage enough leverage to knock your jewels up your throat!" he looked over at Hermione. Part of the reason he continued to try and provoke the guard was to coax a smile out of her. O at least some type of reaction. She was withdrawing further and further into herself as they drew nearer to Azkaban. Nearer the beginning of the trip, she would at least talk a little with him. Now she was a still statue.

Ron stomped his legs in frustration and almost threw himself off balance- they were manacled together and his arms were cuffed behind him. He dearly wished that he had throttled Draco Malfoy when he had the chance. If the bloody ferret hadn't tattled to his father after discovering that Ron and Hermione were involved in a plot to free the Order members trapped in Azkaban, they wouldn't be here. At least he hadn't known about the others...

Ron was bored out of his mind. He needed something to keep it occupied. He could see Azkaban in the distance. It was still just a speck, but it was moving closer by the minute. Ron began to sing. The only song he could think of at the moment was an irritating muggle song taught to him by Harry during their first year. Irritating suited his mood right at that moment.

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall!

Ninety-nine bottles of beer!

If one of those bottles should happen to fall,

Then that's a waste of alcohol!

Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall..."


	2. The Location of Azkaban, a flying cockro...

Disclaimer: These characters are not mine (except for Niamh). Blah, blah, blah.

Chapter One- The Location of Azkaban, a flying cockroach and a restless night.

Ginny sat in the library with Neville and Luna. Ostensibly they were completing their school assignments, but a close observer would have noticed that between them they had failed to write so much as a single line on their parchments.

"Okay," Ginny addressed the other two, "obviously things are getting worse by the day. When they put Remus in Azkaban we all thought it was just the ministry being their stupid selves, but I think we can all agree now that it's simply not the case. Voldemort has to be behind this..."

Luna interrupted, "Yes," she agreed, "My father told me all about it. Voldemort arranged for all of the top ministry members to be possessed by the spirits of his demon servants. He discovered the secret, ancient text of Kalt'n Drath which details rituals of soul extraction and demon possession. The only way to tell whether or not someone is really who they say they are, is to use frogs- Norwegian Swoggle Frogs are the best, they have the ideal enzymatic composition in their skin. Anyone who has been possessed or who has had their soul extracted will turn blue if they come into contact with swoggle toxin. There's an article all about it in the Quibbler. I can lend it to you if you like." She blinked vacuously at Ginny and Neville, who exchanged pained glances with one another.

"Right," Neville interjected, "we'll keep that in mind Luna. Thank you for your ...er... insight," he finished diplomatically.

"Yes, thank you," Ginny added. She paused a moment to gather her wits and the entire table was silent, "How Voldemort is doing this probably doesn't matter. What matters is how we're going to deal with it. We have to break everyone out from Azkaban. It isn't going to be easy- especially now that they've taken Ron and Hermione as well, but we have to succeed. Failure just isn't an option," the set of her jaw showed the other two students just how serious Ginny was, "I only wish we knew what happened to make the Death Eaters move on Ron and Hermione- we've all been trying so hard to keep a low profile," she sighed, "well, we'll probably never find out. We just have to deal with everything as best we can," the others nodded their agreement, "Now we just need to figure out exactly how we're going to do that."

"You're right," Neville pushed his fingers through his already disheveled hair. In recent months it had grown longer as he had grown thinner. None of the three were as healthy and robust as they had been even just half a year before. All had the appearance of being undernourished and hollow eyed, "Our first priority is to determine the location of Azkaban Island," Ginny nodded in agreement.

Luna spoke up hopefully, "There's an article in a back issue of the Quibbler about Azkaban. It think it's one of the best pieces of investigative journalism I've ever read," Ginny and Neville waited patiently to hear the rest of Luna's tale. It was usually easier to listen quietly than to try and interrupt her. Also, if she could manage to hold onto a sliver of hope, then who were they to take it away from her? "The article states that Azkaban Prison is on the ancient Minoan island of Thera. Muggles all thought that Thera was destroyed thousands of years ago by a volcano, but it was really just converted to a prison island and hidden by an Arnethist Cloaking Spell. Only the Keeper of the Spell can tell anyone how to reach the island. What we need to do is to find the keeper and..." Luna drifted off as she became aware that Ginny and Neville had tensed up.

Draco Malfoy was approaching their table. Ginny and Neville glared at him. Luna blinked owlishly. Draco smirked as he came to a stop in front of them. Crabbe and Goyle, his imbecilic lackeys were not quite quick enough in pulling to a stop, so they bumped him slightly from behind. Draco turned on them in anger and by the time he had finished expressing his anger, each sported a pair of antlers. Crabbe and Goyle in their confusion, tangled antlers with each other and fell to the ground. Neville's jaw dropped. Ginny just laughed.

"Oh," said Luna as she eyed dimwitted duo and their antlers, "when did those get there?"

Ginny laughed harder, "I guess Draco need to work harder at screening his lackeys against dullness. Crabbe and Goyle are so thick that if you stabbed a sword into them, it wouldn't come out the other side!"

"Truer words have never been spoken," Neville agreed.

"When someone is stabbed with the Sword of Nur, it dissolves into molten metal inside of them. They melt from the inside out," Luna contributed.

Ginny and Neville exchanged a glance before asking in unison, "The Quibbler, right?" Luna nodded placidly.

Meanwhile, Draco was shifting from his usual pallor through pink and red to a deep angry purple. Before he could manage to find his voice, Ginny, Neville and Luna stood up as a unit and sauntered past him and out of the Library.

"Do you know," Ginny addressed her friends in a voice loud enough to be heard by Draco and anyone else who happened to be studying in the Library at the time, "I can't imagine what could possibly be of interest to those three in a Library. I always thought that one needed to be literate in order to find anything useful here. My mistake," the door swept shut behind the departing trio.

Harry Potter sat in the corner of his cell at Azkaban Prison as he had for the past six weeks. He watched as a cockroach and a dust bunny at the opposite corner of the cell floated rhythmically up and down between the ceiling and the floor. There wasn't really much to do in prison. He could talk with some of the other prisoners in his section, but there wasn't really much new to say when the scenery remained so consistently dull- gray cinder blocks today and gray cinder blocks tomorrow.

Gray cinder blocks into eternity...

Harry was very bored. Nothing less than extreme-gray-cinder-block-screaming-bloodshot boredom could have provoked him to do something as stupid and useless as cause vermin to fly through the use of wandless magic. Harry had become quite good at wandless magic. He had begun to practice when Lupin was sent to Azkaban. While most people had been convinced that the Ministry had locked Lupin away for no other reason than that he was a werewolf, Harry had been convinced that Voldemort was somehow behind it. He had suspected for quite a while that the Ministry of Magic was in large part under Voldemort's control. The arrests that followed, including his own, only served to cement his suspicions.

Harry had at the time of Lupins arrest been almost certain that he would at some point be taking the inmate's tour of Azkaban, so the first wandless spell he worked at mastering was the Patronus charm. It wasn't quite as easy to focus the magical energies without a wand, but with the use of some of the occulomency techniques Snape had taught him he eventually managed to conjure a faint wisp of a non-corporeal patronus. With long hours of practice, he managed eventually to master the wandless version of the spell to the same degree as the version with the wand. Given that success, Harry had begun to practice with other useful spells as well. Then he began to experiment. He was most proud of his Variant Patronus charm. The Variant Patronus involved the creation of a localized non-corporeal patronus that was slow to dissipate. As it remained stationary and lasted for hours, it would be of much use during a Dementor attack in an open area, but it was ideal for use by prisoners at Azkaban.

Harry had kept up a constant patronus shield in his cell for the duration of his stay. He was very relieved to have been able to do so- some of the order members who had already been imprisoned when he arrived had been in quite poor shape. He had learned the locations of their cells as best as he could and had cast distance patroni so that they might recover as best they could free from the interference of dementors. The field created by the spell was large enough that there was a certain amount of margin for error- usually the field was large enough to cover between four and six cells. This meant that it was not only Order members who were gaining protection from the dementors. Harry hadn't quite decided how he felt about that yet. He generally thought that it was wrong to expose people to dementors, but he didn't want the true criminals of Azkaban to have it too easy. Although, who was to say how many trapped within the walls of Azkaban truly were criminals anymore? With that thought, Harry decided that he would cast a Patronus Shield over as much of Azkaban as he was able. Maybe eventually he and the other inmates would be able to fight back- to escape...

Later that evening, as Ginny climbed the stairs to the girl's dormitories, she found her spirits declining. In the library with Neville and Luna, she had almost been enjoying herself- especially when Draco and his lackeys had interrupted them. Sometimes a bit of mischief was just the thing to cheer a girl.

On the other hand, now she was feeling a bit of a backlash. All of the negative thoughts she had managed to push aside during that brief interlude had returned with a vengeance. Now she felt not only sadness at the arrests of her brother and her friends, she felt guilt. Her mind kept on screaming at her, _How dare you feel happiness when they may never experience it again?_ Tears had begun to trail down her cheeks by the time she arrived in her room.

"Gin, what's wrong?" asked Niamh Conmor, another of the sixth year Gryffindors who was also getting ready to go to bed, "Is there anything I can do?"

Ginny smiled sadly, Niamh was really a sweet girl. She was muggle born and had been terribly excited to receive her letter of acceptance from Hogwarts, but sweet as she was, Ginny was beginning to find that she was afraid to trust her thoughts with her though they had known each other and been friends since their very first year at Hogwarts. She was having a hard time trusting anyone. At the back of her mind she knew that someone had to have betrayed Ron and Hermione, but so few had known of their plans to free Harry and the others... who could it have been? Ginny was frustrated on top of depressed.

"Nothing Niamh," she finally answered, "I'm fine. I'm just a little sad. I miss my brother..." she trailed off. Was it safe to say even that much? Could she talk about any of them without fearing for her own safety? There were too many questions. Too many suspicions.

Ginny went through the motions of getting ready for bed, but she knew her mind was too restless for her to have any hope of getting to sleep. With a sigh, she pulled the curtain around her bed and tucked herself under the covers. She might as well try anyway, she would be of no use to anyone if she wasn't well rested.

Four hours later, she finally drifted into a disturbed sleep.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who read this story and thank you to Khadon for beta reading. I like getting lots of reader feedback- it's pretty much what motivates me to keep up with a story. My other story hasn't been updated in over two months for that exact reason- no one read it, so there was no point in continuing. I might pick it up again if people start reading it.

Anyway, I'm getting very off topic... whatever. I'll try to update within a reasonable amount of time.

Ciao for now!


	3. A portentous dream, a forgetful potion a...

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, these characters are not mine.

**Chapter Two**- A portentous dream, a forgetful potion and a conversation in Azkaban

The next morning Ginny barely managed to drag herself down to breakfast. Every inch of her body had screamed in protest as she got up, had her shower and dressed herself. She imagined that if her body could speak, it would be saying, _No! It's not time yet! I'm not done sleeping! Just a few minutes more..._ That pretty much summed up how she felt, but the sixth year Gryffindors had Potions that morning with the Ravenclaws. She might have considered skiving off had her professor been anyone but Severus Snape, but alas, he was one of the few Order members not confined to the bowels of Azkaban. Ginny felt momentarily guilty for wishing Professor Snape ill- he had done a great deal in service of the Order and didn't really diverse to be regarded so poorly, but he was so unpleasant that it was hard not to dislike him. That being the case, Ginny's feelings of guilt were quickly banished.

Upon arriving in the Great Hall, Ginny assumed her customary place at the table, across from Luna and Neville. Luna had her nose in an issue of the Quibbler and Neville was toying with his breakfast of porridge and eggs as he flipped dispiritedly through his Herbology textbook.

Neville was the fist to make note of Ginny's presence, "Hullo Ginny," he said, "how did you sleep last night?"

Ginny sighed, "Dreadfully. I only managed maybe four hours of sleep and I kept on having horrible nightmares."

Neville nodded soberly, "I suppose that's to be expected. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I suppose it might help," Ginny reluctantly agreed, "although I don't know that my dreams really relate to anything- I think that my subconscious is just as upset and confused as the rest of me," she paused for a moment looking quite glum. Luna chose that moment to look up and start paying attention, "Well," Ginny finally continued, "I was on a boat in my dream, but it was an odd sort of boat- with posts, platforms and stairways all over its surface. There were also two tangled up slides leading off one side. I couldn't see where they ended. The water was bubbling angrily. That's because it wasn't really water at all. It was acid. It was trying to eat away at the boat, but it couldn't because every bit of the boat's surface was covered in mirrors. Harry was there and so were Ron and Hermione. Lupin was there too. And Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt- everyone was there. Well, everyone that was sent to Azkaban anyway. It was the strangest thing. I could see two of everyone because they all were reflected in the mirrors on the ship. But the reflections were all distorted- twisted and misshapen except for Harry's. He looked just as he always does and there was a silvery glow around him," she stopped and took a breath, "And that's not the strangest part. Even though I know I was there- I was talking with everyone- I couldn't see my own reflection anywhere. It was like I didn't exist. When I asked Harry about it, in the dream, he said, 'You don't belong here. Your place is where you may walk outside walls and under stars. Be gone from this place before the one who sees within the dark places takes notice of your presence,' and that was all. I woke up immediately after he'd finished talking and I haven't the foggiest idea what he meant. I don't even know that it means anything at all. Like I said, I've been very upset. It's probably just my mind playing tricks on me."

Neville, frowned, "I don't know. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. I know that professor Trelawney's rampant incompetence tend to put people off the idea of dreams having divinatory meanings, but it dies happen sometimes and your dream sounds like if might mean something more than that you're just worried about everyone."

"I agree," Luna stated firmly. She hauled her overlarge school bag up onto the table and dug through it until she found what she was looking for. What emerged from the bag when she had finished her search was, unsurprisingly, yet another issue of her father's magazine, the Quibbler, "In this issue, the world renown seeress and interpreter of dreams, Madame Karthena, outlines common dream symbolism so that you can interpret your dreams at home," she beamed at Ginny, "We can look up the elements of your dream and Madame Karthena will tell us of their significance."

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, hearing Luna preparing to analyze Ginny's dream moved closer to hear better.

"What did you dream about?" Lavender asked with interest evident in her eyes, "Are you analyzing your dream for Trelawney's class? Can I help? Divination's my best class. Did I hear that you dreamed about water? Somnander's Guide to Interpreting dreams says that a dream of water signifies an awakening, which is usually sexual in nature. Either that or you're going to go on a long trip- I'm not sure which. Could you tell me a little bi more about the context?"

Ginny's answering smile was wide and fake, "If I want your... help, then I will ask for it. I'm not asking. Just in case you were wondering. And no, I did not dream about water. I was on a boat, but we were sailing on a sea of acid. Have a nice day. Have your nice day far away from me."

Lavender's jaw dropped at Ginny's blatant rudeness. She turned to Parvati, "Did she just _say_ that? Did you hear her just say that?"

Ginny interrupted Lavender's outraged exclamation, "I don't know about everyone else, but I just heard that. Lavender, if I can still hear you talking, then you haven't gone far enough away yet."

"Come on Lavender," said Parvati as she took Lavender's hand an led her away, "we don't need to be here. All of this toxic hostility in the air is bad for our auras. Let's go visit professor Trelawney," the two girls departed in matching snits.

"I have to go too," Ginny sighed, "I have to be down in the potions dungeon. Are you coming Luna?" the two girls gathered up their school bags and got ready to leave.

"I'll see you two at lunch," Neville called after them. His charms class ended just before noon.

---

In the potions dungeon, Professor Snape was just finishing copying the instructions to create Lethe's Draught onto the board as Ginny and Luna walked into class.

Ginny wrinkled her nose. She didn't like the idea of a potion of forgetfulness. For that matter, she didn't like the idea of any type of memory magic- it brought back too many memories from her first year at Hogwarts. Gilderoy Lockhart, the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at the time had been completely inept at all types of magic not related to memory. He had, throughout his career, used his memory magic to steal the adventures of other witches and wizards. He would learn from them everything about their exploits before obliviating their memories and writing about the adventures as though they were his own. Eventually, one of his spells backfired on him and now he was a permanent resident at St. Mungo's. The spell that backfired had been directed at Ron and Harry. It was only the fact that Lockhart had attempted to use Ron's broken wand to cast the spell that saved them from forgetting everything about themselves.

"Lethe's Draught," Luna sing-songed as she read Snape's notations on the board, "I've read about that..."

As Snape was within hearing, Ginny nudged Luna with her elbow and shushed her. The last thing Luna needed was to cause a scene in Snape's class yet again. He had no patience for her recitations from Quibbler back issues and penalized her more strongly each time she brought up the magazine.

Ginny had not acted quickly enough. As the two girls sat down in their usual places, Snape's lips curled into a malignant little smile.

"Do continue, Miss Lovegood," his voice dripped with false sugar, "I'm sure the rest of the class is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to hear just what it is that you have read about Lethe's Draught."

The entire class held their breath and waited for Luna to dig her own grave by quoting some ludicrous passage from the Quibbler.

"Well," she began, "I was reading last night, from my textbook, and I came across the passage about Lethe's Draught. It causes forgetfulness in varying degrees depending upon the dosage ingested. One drop causes the last few minutes of memory to be lost, whereas to drink the entire potion can cause a person to forget their entire life," She continued to the astonishment of the rest of the class, "There are also several variants on the Draught which may cause it to effect only certain memories. Lethe's Drought is very closely related to Mnemosyne's Drought, a memory restorative. In fact, even the slightest error when creating either one of these potions may result in the accidental brewing of the other. For that reason they are both considered to be very dangerous potions and should only be attempted by very advanced wizards," having finished her little speech, Luna folded her hands neatly in her lap and waited for Snape's response.

Ginny was suppressing a smile, you wouldn't always know it, but behind her abstracted behaviour and eccentric personality Luna actually had quite a sharp mind. On very rare occasions, some of that secret intelligence would burst out of her to the surprise of those who didn't know her as well as Ginny did.

The rest of the class was not as adept as Ginny at hiding their laughter, though they did try. The general effect was of a classroom suddenly stuck all at the same time by uncontrollable fits of coughing.

Professor Snape was clearly not amused.

Ginny found that she greatly enjoyed the rest of potions class. Sometimes it just felt really good to have someone get the best of a professor- especially one so universally disliked.

---

Ron was puzzled by something. He had been at Azkaban now for over twenty-four hours and he had yet to see even a trace of a Dementor. He couldn't imagine why that would be. He had always assumed from the stories he had been told, that the dementors were constantly tormenting the prisoners, making their lives miserable simply just by being there. Ron, however, didn't feel any different now than he had before arriving at Azkaban. He still had good thoughts and bad thoughts and thoughts that fell roughly in the middle. There had to be a reason.

Now, Ron was a lot more intelligent than he was often given credit for. His temper often got in the way, but really he did have rather a sharp mind. How else could he be such a fantastic chess player? That being said, he knew that there was something out of the ordinary going on at Azkaban. He wasn't sure precisely what it was, but he was fairly certain that it had something to do with Harry.

"I'll bet that this has something to do with Harry," he mused aloud.

"What was that?" asked a voice from the next cell.

Ron was startled, this was the first time that anyone had spoken to him while he had been here. He hadn't really expected that anyone in Azkaban would be in any sort of condition to carry on a conversation.

"Er... who's there?" Ron asked.

"Oh, nobody," the voice answered.

"I'm talking to nobody?" Ron asked, "What. Are you a voice in my head or something?"

The voice was quiet for a while before answering, "No. I don't think so. I'm a little bit confused though. I don't remember very many things."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I forgot," the voice paused. Ron could almost picture an expression of deep thought on the face of the voice, "since yesterday, some things have been starting to come back to me. Not much though."

"What happened yesterday?" Ron asked, "Why are you starting to remember things now?"

"I don't know," the voice answered, "yesterday they just stopped coming around."

"Who did?"

"The dementors. The things that stole my memories away."

"I thought you said that you didn't remember what happened to your memory?"

"I didn't remember. Now I do. Like I said, things are coming back to me. I think I've been here a really long time. I think that when the dementors are finished with all of your good memories, they take whatever's left... they leave you with nothing. That's why I never said anything to you before now."

"The dementors took all of your memories?"

"Yes, but they're coming back... slowly. What do you think happened? Why did they stop coming?"

"I don't know," Ron answered, "but I think we'll find out..."

A/N: Hope you like it. Thanks to all who reviewed. :)


	4. Nervous guards, a new Defense Professor ...

**Disclaimer: **These characters are not mine (well… some of them are, but… never mind.) I know it. You know it. We all know it. And yet I keep on announcing it with every new chapter…

**Chapter Three**- Nervous guards, a new Defense Professor and a curious curse

Harry woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and optimistic. Considering his status as a prison inmate, this was not the most usual of circumstances, however, Harry had decided that this was the day. The day he would see what Azkaban looked like from the other side of the bars.. so to speak. Harry's cell didn't actually have bars- just a slot on the floor where meals appeared twice daily. In fact, Harry could hear the footsteps that were a prelude to his morning meal approaching. Oddly, there were two sets. He could also hear voices.

"I don't like it," said the first voice, "usually we have to cast slews of patroni to clear the dementors come feeding time, but I haven't seen a single one yet today. I haven't even needed to bring out my wand."

"I know what you mean," the second voice answered, "something's not right. I don't know what's going on, but I know I don't like it."

"Me neither," voice one again, "I want to get everyone fed and get out of here," Harry heard the man with the voice take a breath, "thanks for doing rounds with me- this whole thing is creeping me out."

"Yeah. Me too. It's not a problem, I didn't want to walk around this place alone either. Not when it's like this…"

"I know. Some of them… some of the inmates… I heard them talking. They never talk."

"Yeah. I wonder what changed…"

Harry grinned. He knew what had changed. His patronus shield was working far beyond his expectations. This was his first confirmation that he had managed to shield Azkaban in it's entirety. He was very pleased with himself.

Today was Tuesday. Ginny liked Tuesdays because she had both Charms and transfiguration. They were her favourite classes. In her mind, they epitomized everything that magic was- no props and accessories except your wand. She found them to be more based in thought and concentration than many of the other classes she took. Potions was just chemistry and Herbology was the gardening you had to get out of the way before you got to the Chemistry. It also helped that she liked Professors Flitwick and McGonnagall. Ginny also generally liked Defense Against the Dark Arts, but that was much less consistent than Charms and Transfiguration. It could be her most or least favourite class depending on who taught it.

This year, just when Ginny had been thinking that the curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had been broken and the same teacher would remain in the position two years running, Nymphadora Tonks had been arrested on spurious charges and sent to Azkaban. Now the class was being taught by a young upstart from the ministry named Klarion Derven. Ginny didn't trust Professor Derven. There was just something about him… not to mention that he worked for the ministry. She definitely didn't trust the ministry!

Professor Derven seemed to be a reasonably competent teacher- Ginny was certainly learning a lot. But there was just something in his demeanor… While he didn't have any Slytherin affiliations that she knew of, Ginny had noticed that the professor treated differently the students who were not born of pure magical lines. It was a subtle thing, but noticeable for one whose eyes were tuned to see such things…

Ginny shook off her dismal thoughts. She would be late for Charms if she didn't hurry and she had heard rumours that Professor Flitwick was going to teach a new charm today. She didn't want to miss it.

Ginny arrived in Charms class just in time for the beginning of class. She found her seat next to Andrea Lovejoy, a Slytherin girl. Ginny had always thought that she was misnamed for her house. At least she wasn't an overly offensive girl. Ginny had actually met Hufflepuffs with wider mean streaks than Andrea's.

"How are you doing Andrea?" she asked.

Andrea shrugged, "Alright, I guess. This is a weird year though- what with so many people getting sent to Azkaban and all…"

"Yeah," Ginny agreed quietly. She wasn't angry at Andrea for bringing up the sensitive topic. She was fairly sure that Andrea had a slight crush on Ron and so could really blame her for having the situation on her mind and wanting to talk about it. However, Ginny didn't really feel up to the speculation so she opted to change the subject, "Have you heard anything about the new charm Flitwick is teaching? Do you know what it is?"

"I think it's called 'The Coprolalia Curse'. I don't know what it does though."

Ginny lifted an eyebrow. She had a fair idea of what it might do… "Really? Coprolalia? Flitwick's going to teach us how to…" she was cut off by Professor Flitwick's entrance into the classroom.

"Good morning class," Professor Flitwick moved to the front of the room, "I trust that you are all aware we will be learning a new charm today. I must warn you in advance that this charm- or curse as it is commonly called- is not to be used with impunity. While I'm sure you will all find it's effects to be quite entertaining, it can grow quite… tiresome," a ghost of a smile slid across Flitwick's face. He surveyed the class briefly and then asked, "Now, will any of you offer to help me with a demonstration of the curse?"

Ginny looked down at the table, trying desperately to avoid making eye contact with Flitwick. This was one curse that she definitely did not want to help demonstrate. Not if it did what she thought it would…

It did.

Flitwick finally managed to coax a reluctant Niamh Conmor to volunteer to be cursed. He brought her up to the front of the class and instructed her to stand still. She did as he asked and awaited the curse. Ginny could see that she was nervous and had no idea what the results of the curse would be.

Colin Creevy, in his corner of the classroom had surreptitiously taken out his camera to immortalize the moment. Ginny thought that Niamh's reaction might be worth capturing on film, but she also thought that Colin would likely be disappointed. The curse wouldn't transform her or anything flashy like that. It would be interesting though…

Flitwick pointed his wand in Niamh's direction and executed a quick move as though he were tapping the wand against the air. As he did this, he spoke the word of the curse, "_Coprolalio_!"

The class collectively dropped it's jaw as Niamh let forth with a stream of profanity so vile it would shame a harpy. Ginny could almost feel the air burning at the touch of the words.

Belatedly, Colin snapped a photograph.

A/N: Sorry I've been so long about updating- I've been finishing up the last semester of my degree and it has consumed rather a lot of my time. Sorry again. I'll try and update faster in the future.

Please do continue to read my story.


	5. Charms from the Quibbler, the return of ...

Disclaimer: These characters still do not belong to me.

Chapter Four- Charms from the Quibbler, the return of the voice and Harry's flying cockroach

At lunch, Ginny regaled Neville and Luna with tales out of Charms class. They wanted to see her demonstrate the new curse she had learned, but she put them off saying, "I'll have to wait until we're not in such a crowded place. As I'm sure you can imagine, the Great Hall isn't really the best place to make someone start swearing uncontrollably. People might take it the wrong way. You should have been there in the class! The look on everyone's faces when Niamh started into it- I don't think I've ever heard her swear before today, and there she was spouting off words I'd never even heard before! It was brilliant. I'll bet that curse would be terrifically useful in a duel- you can't very well cast spells when your tongue is all tied up trying to stop itself from swearing!"

Ginny's eyes glowed with laughter. This was the happiest that either Neville or Luna had seen her in quite a long time.

"Do you know," she continued, "this almost inspires me to go looking up charms and curses on my own! Imagine what other spells could be out there! I may just start taking a page from Hermione's book!" she abruptly silenced herself. Thoughts of Hermione, Ron and Harry locked away in Azkaban immediately killed her good mood.

Luna, naturally did not notice Ginny's sudden sobering of countenance. She was, as usual, off on her own track, "Do you know," she commented, "that the Quibbler put out an issue last year listing some of the more uncommon and interesting charms. Here, I'll demonstrate one," she pointed her wand at Neville's glass of orange juice and said, "_Retore_!"

The glass of juice turned into an orange.

Next, she pointed at Ginny's cream of mushroom soup and repeated the charm. Mushrooms began to sprout from the table.

"That's one of my favourite ones," Luna announced, "It's different every time, so it never gets boring," she smiled.

Ginny and Neville exchanged surprised glances. Neither one of them had ever expected that the Quibbler would print anything true! Luna and her magazine were full of surprises.

"That's very interesting," Neville said cautiously, "Now, would you mind turning my orange juice back?"

"And my soup," Ginny added.

Luna shrugged, "The counter-charm wasn't listed in that issue."

Somehow Ginny wasn't surprised.

"Are there any other good charms in that issue?" Neville asked. Ginny could tell that he wasn't really sure whether or not he ought to have asked and she didn't blame him. On the one hand, Luna might know some very interesting and useful charms, but on the other hand, this was the Quibbler they were talking about… It only very rarely printed anything with a grain of truth. In fact, the only other instance she could think of was when Harry Potter had given an interview in order to get the word out about Voldemort's return. And they hadn't exactly come up with that on their own.

"Oh yes!" Luna answered, "Quite a lot actually. Would you like to read it?"

"Yes," Ginny and Neville both answered at the same time.

Luna looked surprised. She wasn't used to having people take her up on her offers to loan out back issues of the Quibbler, "Alright," she said, "Give me a moment and I'll fetch it out. I'm afraid I've only got just the one copy though- You'll have to share it between you."

Ginny nodded, "I'm sure we'll manage."

-

Ron and the disembodied voice in the next cell had continued to talk for only a few more minutes before settling down to sleep for the night. While Ron had been glad to have someone to talk to, there weren't really a great deal of conversational possibilities when one of the conversationalists could barely recall he had a head on his shoulders. However, Ron did hold out hopes for improvement- the man's memory had begun to return as they spoke and no doubt a night of rest would have helped it along even further.

The guards who had delivered his breakfast had seemed jittery and nervous. The lunch guards were even more so. He heard talk among them about abandoning the island. Apparently they didn't feel safe there anymore. Something to do with the missing dementors.

"I just don't like it," one of the lunch guards said to the other, "If they're not getting after the prisoners like they're supposed to be doing, then who can say what they're about?"

The second guard whimpered a bit at that, "Dear Lord! I'm thinkin' now'd be a good time t'be at home with the wife- far from here!"

"Excuse me," Ron chose that moment to interrupt their conversation.

The guards abruptly stopped walking. Ron could hear them whispering to each other.

"It's one of the prisoners!" the voice of the first guard.

"But why's he talkin'? Shouldn't he be too out of his mind t'be makin' sense?"

"It's what I've been saying! With the dementors gone, they're all coming back to themselves! We won't be long before a jailbreak happens- there's really not much in the way of security without the dementors. We've always depended on them!"

Ron filed that information away. It could be quite useful, "Thank you for sharing, gentlemen. You've been most useful, I assure you!" he carolled. He was actually beginning to enjoy himself quite a lot.

One of the guards gasped. Ron couldn't tell which one it was.

"D'ya see what ye've done?" Ah. It was guard number two. Ron continued to listen, "He _knows_ everything now! And it's all thanks t'you!"

The guards whispered back and forth with each other for a few moments more. It was becoming tiresome. Ron gave a shot at opening the door to his cell. No luck. Shoddy security or not, the door _was_ locked. It was times like this that Ron wished he still had his wand with him. At least it hadn't been destroyed… he'd managed to get it to Ginny before he was taken away. He hoped that she was alright. She hadn't exactly been at her best after Harry was arrested- she'd always been in love with him. As concerned as he was about Ginny though, he was much more worried about Hermione. He hadn't seen her even once since arriving at Azkaban. Hopefully she was doing better now. Maybe now that the dementors seemed to be gone she would be able to recover properly. He would have to get to her somehow and make sure. The lock on the door didn't seem to sturdy, maybe he could… No such luck. He was able to jiggle it a bit and make a racket, but he couldn't actually open the door.

"Did you hear that?" he heard the first guard say, "He's trying to get out! What do we do?"

Once again, guard two was the voice of reason, "Nothin'. He can't get out. The door's locked or did'ye forget that ye bloomin' fool?"

"Oh. Right," guard one mumbled sheepishly.

The voice from the next cell chose that moment to reassert itself, "What's going on out there? What are you lot bickering about?"

"Oh, nothing," Ron answered for the guards, "They're just trying to decide whether or not I'll be able to break down this door and viciously murder them. Not much of interest."

"Ah, I see," the voice answered. And then it shouted out to the guards, "Hai! Listen to me! When this fellow breaks out, I'll be right there him and the both of us are going to make you regret ever trying to keep us locked up!"

Ron heard the guards' gasps of fright followed quickly by the sound of quickly receding footsteps.

The voice laughed, "That was fun! I don't remember the last time I enjoyed myself so well!"

"Do you know," said Ron carefully, "they're probably not really bad folk. If we do get out of here, I don't think that we ought to do anything too terrible to the guards. They're just doing their jobs and it's not really them that hurts us anyway."

"Oh, I know," answered the voice, "It was just a bit of fun. I wouldn't really do anything. I don't think I'm that sort of person. Actually, I'm not even really sure why I'm here. Some more of my memories have come back, but I don't remember doing anything that would have got me sent to this place."

"Well," said Ron, "it's possible that you didn't do anything. I didn't. I'm only here because I somehow got on Voldemort's bad side. He's got the Ministry of Magic in his pocket, you know."

"The Ministry…" the voice drifted off for a bit. Ron could almost hear it thinking, "I think that I worked at the Ministry… a long time ago."

Ron didn't know what to think about that. Whose side was he voice on?

-

When the guards came to Harry's cell with his lunch, he decided to have a little fun with them. As they slid the meal in through the flap in the floor, he caused his 'pet' cockroach to glide out from the cell through the flap and woggled it around in front of the guards' faces.

"What in-" the guard's voice was cut off as Harry caused the cockroach to fly into his mouth. Vigorous spitting and cursing ensued.

"What's going on?" asked the guard who wasn't spitting and cursing.

"Not much," answered Harry as he unlocked and opened the door to his cell, "I'm only just going to be taking over Azkaban for a bit. You can stay in my cell until I'm done."

He floated the sputtering guards into the cell, removed their wands, and locked them inside.

He smiled beatifically and went to look for some people to help him with his rebellion.

A/N: Well. That's my next chapter. To anyone who actually read it, I would like to say "Thank you." If you wrote a review, "Thank you even more."

I hope you've enjoyed reading this. I haven't really much else to say at the moment since I've a grand total of not very many reviews at all. But, if people actually do start to follow this story, I may eventually think of something more interesting to say in my authors note. Oh well. That's it.


	6. Stolen wands, OWLs and family trees

Disclaimer: .enim ton era sretcarahc esehT

**Chapter Five**- Stolen wands, O.W.L.s and family trees

Harry found Nymphadora Tonks in a cellblock near his own. He was surprised to discover Hermione also in that block.

"I didn't know she was here," said Tonks when Harry asked her about it, "I haven't really been myself since I arrived. I've not really paid much attention to anything… How long have I been here?"

"Three months, give or take," Harry answered, "You were arrested just before the start of term. I think it's almost December now. It's hard to be sure though- I've been here since the middle of October myself. We're going to leave soon though. First we have to get control of this place, of course, but I don't think that should be too difficult."

"Not difficult?" asked Tonks. She pushed her hand through her hair, which at the moment was lank, dull and dishwater brown. Clearly she had not yet completely recovered from her time spent at the hands of the dementors, "How can you say that? We haven't even got wands!"

Harry grinned and handed her one of the wands he'd stolen from the guards he'd locked in his cell, "Sure you do! And I don't need one!" his eyes positively gleamed with that pronouncement.

Tonks looked down at the wand doubtfully, "Where did you get this?"

Harry rocked back on his heels, the picture of self-satisfaction, "I stole it."

She gasped.

He shrugged, "Well, I'm having a rebellion here! I can't have pesky guards waving their wands all over the place! Besides, your wand was destroyed, so I had to find you another one."

"What about you?" asked Hermione. It was the first words she's spoken since she'd been let out of her cell. Harry didn't understand why she seemed quite so subdued. She couldn't have been at Azkaban for long- less time than he'd spent certainly. Also, she seemed worse off than Tonks, and that didn't really make sense. He would have to figure it out later.

"Didn't I say?" he answered her question, "I don't need a wand. I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd be arrested, so I've been practicing wandless magic since the summer. I started right after Lupin got arrested. I'm quite good at it now."

"Oh," Tonks looked quite surprised, "That's very advanced. I don't know many people who know how to do wandless magic. I don't know how."

Harry beamed. This was the best day he'd had in quite a long while, "Let's find some more people to break out."

"Ron," Hermione softly interjected.

"Ron's here too? Wow. Today's full of surprises," Harry shrugged, "We'll fetch him first then. Shall we be off?" Harry did a quick locator spell and then set of in Ron's direction. As they walked, he hummed under his breath.

_I'm the King of the Castle_…

Ginny and Neville were sitting at a table in the library with spell books spread all around them. The Quibbler issue they'd borrowed from Luna was discretely hidden from site under Neville's school bag. They had each carefully copied out the charms from the issue into their notebooks and were waiting patiently for Luna to return from the opposite side of the Library where she was lecturing a nervous looking first year Hufflepuff on the virtues of the Quibbler. They were eager to return the magazine to her so that they would not have to suffer the indignity of being caught with it themselves.

Ginny absently flipped through the pages of a particularly large and boring book which seemed to consist primarily of spells to lock or hide things away and their counter spells. She wasn't paying particularly close attention to what was on the pages. She was just looking to see if anything would pop out at her. She had come to the conclusion over an hour ago, that unlike Hermione, she was not cut out to be a bookworm and study bug. Neville seemed to be much more engrossed in his reading material than she was.

_If I have to read about one more variation on the unlocking charm_…

Ginny cut off in mid-thought. Something in the book had caught her attention. There was a loose page of parchment hidden between the pages. _Interesting_. Ginny unfolded the parchment. It was actually quite large. It appeared to be some sort of genealogy. She had to study it for a moment before figuring out why it had been hidden. At the top, in faded spidery lettering, she made out words which seemed to spell out 'Genealogy of Salazar Slytherin'. Finally, she was able to find Salazar's name near the top. She hadn't spotted it immediately because there were several preceding generations also recorded.

"Neville," she tapped him on the shoulder to catch his attention, "I think I've found something?"

"Did you find the counter to the charm Luna put on our Lunch?" he asked.

"No. Better. I've found a Slytherin genealogy."

Neville's jaw dropped, "I didn't know there was a record!"

"There is. I've got it. I haven't studied it to closely yet- it's enormous, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be useful for something."

"How up to date is it?"

Ginny shuffled the parchment around a bit until she had the most recent entries in front of her. At least a dozen different styles of handwriting made up the genealogy. Ginny was in awe of it. The parchment must have stayed in the Slytherin family for generations with each successive heir keeping track of their familial connections…

"The last entry is a birth dated at 1927. It's a boy- the son of Pythia Cerastes, and get this," she paused for emphasis, "The boy is named Thomas."

"Thomas? You don't think… could it be?"

"Tom Riddle?" Ginny grinned, "I think so! The dates are about right. That's not even the best part though. Pythia wasn't an only child. She had brothers and sisters and some of them had children of their own!"

Neville caught his breath, "Do you mean..?"

"Yeah, that's right," Ginny's eyes twinkled, "It's entirely possible that our friend Tom Riddle has family still alive today. I'll bet that even he doesn't know about this! We've got to see if we can find out."

"Absolutely," Neville agreed.

Luna chose that moment to return to the table. She looked dreamily from Ginny to Neville taking in their excited expressions and said, "I knew that reading the Quibbler would help you."

Neville coughed to hide a laugh, "Right. Er… yes. I was a great deal of help. We're finished with it now though," he extracted the magazine from it's hiding place under his school bag and handed it back to Luna, "Here you are."

Luna smiled brightly and accepted the magazine.

Ginny re-folded the genealogy and tucked it in her bag. She had a feeling that it would be best if no one else knew about it just yet. She wanted to study it more carefully on her own. Perhaps she would pay a visit to the room of requirement when she had a free moment since her dorm wasn't the most private place imaginable.

Luna sat down next to Neville, "What are you reading?" she asked.

"I'm researching charms," he answered.

"Still? That's what you were doing when I went over to help that nice Hufflepuff girl with her potions homework."

"You were helping someone with their potions homework?" Ginny asked doubtfully. She had visions of the poor little Hufflepuff girl being corrupted into spouting misinformation from the Quibbler in Professor Snape's presence. It wasn't a pretty picture.

Luna nodded enthusiastically, "Potions is my best subject. I scored Outstanding on my O.W.L."

"Oh," Ginny didn't really know what else to say about that. She supposed that she should have guessed that Luna wasn't quite as absentminded as she seemed. There had been clues that she actually did know quite a lot about potions. Somehow, Ginny had just always found it difficult to take anything Luna said seriously. She would have to work on that, "Umm. I didn't know that. Congratulations."

Luna smiled, "Thank you! You're so sweet."

Ginny turn to Neville and gave him a look that said, 'Did you know about this?' His answering shrug suggested that he hadn't.

"Oh look!" cried Luna, oblivious to her companions' state of shock, "It's time for dinner. Shall we go?"

Following dinner, Ginny, Neville and Luna stole away to the room of requirement. Neville had quietly informed Luna of their discovery on the way to the dining hall and all three of them had fidgeted their way impatiently through dinner.

Ginny gasped as she entered the room. It amazed her every time how everything she could possibly need was already there, waiting for her. The room was furnished with a large table and three comfortable chairs. There were also several bookshelves containing everything written about wizarding families. It might take them a while, but with all of the resources available here, they were certain to find something useful.

Luna headed directly across the room to a shelf, which Ginny was surprised to see contained an impressive complement of Quibble back issues.

"Oh, look!" she cried, "All of the issues containing exposes on the oldest wizarding families are here! This is brilliant! I'm missing a lot of these issues- some are from even before I was born!" She reverently selected an issue, "This issue has an article all about the Noctis family. They were rumoured to have strong ties to the Cerastes family."

"Riddle's mother's family?" Neville asked with interest.

"Yes," Luna nodded happily.

Ginny raised her eyebrows. She wasn't sure how much stock she was willing to put in what the Quibbler had to say- it wasn't the most reliable of magazines, but she had only just recently seen firsthand proof that not everything in the publication was false. She was willing to admit that it was at least worth a look.

"Is there an issue that focuses on the Cerastes family?" she asked hopefully. She somehow didn't think that there would be- she'd never heard the name before seeing it on the genealogy, after all. Still, it was worth a shot. The family might have held a higher profile in the Quibbler than in more mainstream news sources such as the Daily Prophet. After all, Ginny had never heard of the Noctis family either. Luna was evidently quite familiar with both names. She was proving to be a constant surprise.

"Of course there is," answered Luna, "It's from seventeen years ago, when the Dark Lord was at his peak. The Quibbler did a feature on his family history. It's quite well written, a classic really. I think the author won a Poison Pen Award for writing it."

"Of course," said Ginny. _Why am I even surprised?_ "Well, what does it have to say then?"

"Hold on a minute," Luna held up a hand, "I've got to find it, now don't I?" she continued conversationally, "You know, there weren't very many copies of this issue printed. The Dark Lord and his minions are responsible, of course. They tried to suppress it. Didn't want the world to know the truth."

"What?" asked Ginny with irony, "That he was only a half-blood wizard?"

"That and other things," Luna answered cryptically.

Neville frowned, "Look, I know it will be interesting learning more about the Dark Lord's family, but will it really help us? I mean, shouldn't we be focussing on rescuing everyone from Azkaban?"

"Well," said Ginny, "In general terms, I agree with you, but the fact of the matter is that we haven't a clue how to go about breaking into Azkaban. We don't even know where it is, let alone how to breach the security…"

"It's on the island of Thera," Luna interjected.

"Right," Ginny continued, "The island of Thera. Even if that is true- and I'm not convinced that it is, no one knows where Thera is located. Like you said, it was supposed to have been destroyed ages ago by a volcanic eruption. It might as well be Atlantis for all the chance we have of finding it!"

"Oh! I know where Atlantis is!" Luna was looking excited again.

"I don't care where it is!" Ginny was quite furious by this point, "Atlantis doesn't matter! We're not talking about Atlantis!"

Neville broke in to try and stem Ginny's eruption, "Look, let's forget about that for now. You're probably both right, but that's not the point," he held up a hand to still Ginny's inevitable protest, "It doesn't matter where Azkaban is. We can't get there. We don't know who the secret keeper person is or even if they exist…"

"Keeper of the spell," Luna corrected, "It's an entirely different thing. An Arnethist cloaking spell has a keeper of the spell, not a secret keeper. They're two entirely different things…"

"Right," Neville continued, "so it doesn't matter where Azkaban is. We can't do anything about Azkaban. Maybe reading up on the Dark Lord's ancestry won't help us just now, but it can't hurt to know about it. Maybe down the road we will be able to use what we learn. That's all we can hope for now. Harry, Ron, Hermione and everyone else at Azkaban will just have to take care of themselves for the time being."

A/N: Lovely. I'm quite glad that there are now at least a few people out there who are enjoying my story. I'm getting to enjoy it quite a bit more myself now that things are beginning to happen.

I would once again like to say thank you to all who have read my story (especially those of you who've added it to your favourites list!)

Also, I would like to thank Khadon for beta-reading for me. He's much more familiar with the details of cannon than I am, and I'm grateful to him for his help keeping them straight.

As you have probably noticed, I've recently begun updating a little more frequently. This is due to my having finished my degree program at the end of December, and as a consequence, having quite a bit more free time on my hands.

That's it for now.


	7. A scavenger hunt, more stolen wands, and...

Disclaimer: Not mine! :)

**Chapter Six**: A scavenger hunt, more stolen wands, and a deepening mystery.

It was still early afternoon when Ron heard a familiar voice humming as it approached his cell.

"Harry?" he called out tentatively, "Is that you out there?"

"Ron!" was the joyful reply, "There you are! How did you end up at the opposite side of prison? It took us much longer to find you than it ought to have done."

"Us? Who's with you?"

"Well," Harry answered, "Let's see, we've got Tonks, Hermione, and oddly enough Fred and George. I didn't even know that they were here, did you? Found them completely by accident. I did a locator spell and tuned it to the closest Weasley and there they were! I suppose they picked up as strongest because there were two of them and they were together. Anyway…"

"Fred and George are there? And Hermione? How are you Hermione? Are you feeling better than you were when they brought us here? What happened? What did they do to you?"

"What?" Tonks interjected, "You don't care about me?"

"Oh, sorry Tonks," Ron apologized, "it's just that, well…"

"Oh, I know. I'm not family and you're not in love with me."

Ron blushed and was thankful still to be in his cell where no one could witness his reaction, "Right."

After a long delay, Hermione finally spoke, "I'm alright Ron, well… not alright, but I will be. I'm starting to feel a little better."

"But what happened to you?"

"That's a good question," Harry commented, "What _did_ happen to you Hermione?"

She sighed heavily, "When I was taken into custody, I was left alone for a few minutes with the dementors. By the time the Ministry Officials thoughts to check on me, one of them was getting ready to kiss me. I'm not entirely sure that it didn't actually. I feel like a part of me is missing- ripped away."

"Is that possible?" Ron asked, horrified, "Can dementors tear away a part of a person's soul?"

"All signs point to yes," cried Harry's inappropriately cheerful voice.

"Is there something the matter with you as well?" Ron asked nervously.

"Definitely," answered Fred and George, "he's making us look sober and sensible."

"And he won't stop singing!" Tonks added.

"He's full of nonsense," Fred agreed, "I think that being here has cooked his brain."

"Too a soupy mush," George finished.

"Right," Ron muttered, "Of course. Well. Can he get me out of here?"

"Of course I can!" Harry chirped, "_Alohamora_!" the door swung open. Ron exited.

"Oh!" said the voice from the next cell, "Are you letting people out then? Can I come?"

Harry shrugged, "Okay. _Alohamora_!"

Ron wished that Harry wouldn't be so hasty. He still didn't know anything about the person in the next cell- except that the Ministry of Magic had seen fit to employ him. It wasn't the strongest of recommendations.

A man stepped out of the newly opened cell. He looked to be in his forties and had nondescript brown hair and faded blue eyes with a startled expression, "Odd," he commented, "everything seems so large now that I'm not in that tiny cell anymore."

"Right," said Ron. He decided to cut to the heart of the matter, "Do you remember your name yet?"

"Oh!" said the man formerly known as 'the voice', completely sidestepping the issue, "Are you the fellow I've been talking to? I'm very pleased to see you in person," he held out his hand to shake.

George took the hand that was offered and shook it, "No," he answered, "Not me. I think you're looking for my brother.

The man turned to Fred, "No," Fred corrected, "the other brother," he pointed at Ron, "That one."

It was at that point that Ron began to really question the man's sanity. He heard Harry giggle. And there was yet another person to worry about…

"I'm very pleased to see you in person," the man repeated, this time addressing Ron.

"Charmed, I'm sure," Ron said with a weak smile, "Lovely to see you. So. What was your name again?" but the man had wandered off down the hallway. _Brilliant_.

"I wonder how long _he's_ been here?" Harry said with a laugh.

"Too long," Hermione answered quietly, "We've all been here too long. We should leave."

Harry shrugged, "Where would we go? We don't even know where we are. I suggest that since we're going to be here for a while anyway, we might as well have some fun. I suggest a scavenger hunt!" his eyes lit up, "We've only got two wands between us, so let's find some more! We'll each track down as many guards as we can find, and we'll steal their wands! It'll be great fun!"

"What about the other order members?" Ron asked, "At what about the man that you just let out? We can't just leave him to wander around! We don't even know who he is!"

Harry's expression became mock-serious. He nodded solemnly, "Indeed, you are correct," his face broke into smiles again, "What kind of scavenger hunt has only one item? We also have to look for incarcerated order members and for that man who went down the hall that way," he gestured in the direction the man had taken, "Oh! And we should also look for bottles of Butter Beer!"

"How does that help us?" Ron wasn't really sure that he wanted to know.

Harry looked at him as though he'd lost his mind, "It doesn't! What did you think? I'm thirsty is all," he turned to look at the others, "Does anyone else want a Butter Bear?"

"Can I have a Ginger Ale?" asked Hermione.

"Of course you can!" Harry answered magnanimously, "Won't somebody fetch the lady a Ginger Ale?"

Ron threw up his hands in disgust. It looked like he was the only one who really cared about what was going to happen. He would just have to stay with the others, keeping a close eye on them. Somebody had to make sure they didn't hurt themselves…

-

Thirty minutes later, Ron sat disconsolately at a table in what seemed to be some sort of cafeteria or staff lounge. At any rate, wherever they were, there was a decent sized stock of Butter Beer. That had been enough to convince Harry that they ought to stay there for a bit and 'rest up'. Ron had tried to talk him out of it to no avail.

"But we're in the middle of a prison!" he'd protested.

Harry had only shrugged and said, "Makes it interesting, doesn't it? Think of all of the stories you and Hermione'll be able to tell your grandkids!" He had then had the nerve to ruffle Ron's hair. Ron and Hermione both had blushed furiously.

And that was that.

Nothing whatsoever had been done to find the missing order members or the missing prisoner. And they still had only two wands.

Given the tenuousness of their position, Harry's confidence seemed a bit excessive.

"Shouldn't we leave already?" Ron wrestled internally with himself before speaking again, "We still have several items for the scavenger hunt which we haven't ticked off yet," he managed a smile, but it was weak and sickly.

"That's the spirit Ron!" Harry clapped him on the back, "You're quite right!"

Hermione's eyes grew wide, "But I'm not finished with my drink yet!" she protested. Harry had shown off his abilities with wandless magic and transfigured a bottle of Butter Beer into a can of Ginger Ale with a white straw. Hermione was savouring the Ginger Ale. She had been drinking it for almost twenty minutes now and Ron suspected that she could easily take at least twenty more.

Fred and George were sitting on the floor in the corner of the room building exploding card castles with a deck they'd found and laughing uproariously each time one blew up.

Tonks had found a hand mirror and she seemed to be trying to 'liven up' her appearance. It wasn't working. She had managed to change her features several times, but each new configuration was as unattractive as the last and her hair colour had not budged from dishwater brown. Ron sympathized with her, he really did. He just didn't want her fussing with her appearance when thee were more important things they could all be doing.

It was a hopeless situation.

Yes, he was at least out of his cell, but he might just as well have stayed for all the use it did him being 'free'. He still couldn't leave the island and his co-conspirators- or rebels, as Harry insisted they be called, were useless. Worse than useless.

Ron was beginning to have a fairly good idea of what it felt like to be depressed. He was almost tempted to go and build an exploding card castle with Fred and George. Almost.

"Hermione," he said, "You can take your drink with you, but we really ought to be leaving…"

The timing was of course, perfect. At the exact moment that Ron spoke, he heard the approach of a pair of guards. He listened to their voices. They were familiar.

"What are we going to do?" the voice belonged to guard one- the alarmist.

"I don't know," guard two sounded as nervous as guard one.

"How did they get out? Where are they?" he paused, "They're going to kill us, aren't they? They said they'd kill us!!"

Guard two tried unsuccessfully to calm his companion, "Maybe not. Maybe they were jus' trickin' on us," he didn't sound sure. That, Ron decided, was probably why guard one wasn't comforted.

"I don't think they sounded like they were kidding."

Harry had, by that time, noticed the conversation taking place on the other side of the door. A decidedly wicked grin spread itself across his face.

Ron sighed resignedly. Harry was going to do something. It would probably be flashy and unnecessary, but it would end with guards confined and out of harms way less their wands. Ron decided not to interfere. He could use a wand.

Harry swung the door open just as one of the guards was reaching to open it, "Boo!" he shouted.

The guard stood frozen. His companion turned and ran. _No idiot, that fellow_, Ron thought to himself, _He knows exactly where not to be_.

The guard didn't run fast enough.

Harry quietly whispered a charm and the escaping guard flew up and adhered to the ceiling.

The remaining guard began to pray, "Dear Lord in Heaven, blessed be thy name. Please be with me in these times of troubles and carry me safely…"

Ran recognized the voice of guard one, "What's your name?" he asked, interrupting the prayer.

The guard gulped nervously, "It's Trevor," he answered. His voice quivered.

Ron studied the man. He had round dark eyes and a large wide mouth with fleshy lips. His body was round and he had no neck to speak of. His limbs were long and bony. They seemed quite out of place with the rest of him.

"Trevor," said Harry thoughtfully, "I know a Trevor…"

Ron could see where that was going. The only Trevor he and Harry knew of belonged to their friend Neville. Trevor was a frog.

"Do you know," Harry continued conversationally, "you sort of look like him."

Ron could see where that was going. He had to admit though, that it was true. The man did look an awful lot like a frog. He was even a bit greenish… like he was going to be sick…

Harry snapped his fingers and Trevor the guard became Trevor the frog.

Trevor the frog croaked.

"And now we've got four wands!" Harry crowed picking up Trevor's wand from the floor. He tossed it to Ron, "Here you are."

"What about us?" asked Fred and George.

"Well," said Harry, "There aren't quite enough wands for you each to have your own quite yet, but it you don't mind sharing for a space, I'll do my best to find another soon."

He pointed at the second guard who was still firmly affixed to the ceiling and shouted, "_Accio wand_!"

The guard's face fell. The rest of him followed shortly after. Harry had apparently decided not to leave him on the ceiling. Harry handed the wand to George, who happened to be nearest at hand.

Meanwhile, Hermione had picked up Trevor-formerly-the-guard-now-the-frog. She put him in her pocket.

Harry looked speculatively at the second guard, "Do you think a wand that was really just a transfigured prison guard would work as well as an ordinary wand?"

"It's worth a try," answered Fred, after unsuccessfully trying to take possession of George's new wand.

The guard disappeared and a wand clattered to the floor in his place. It looked to be made of cherry wood and was about eight inches long. Fred picked it up.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" Fred pointed the wand at the chair Ron had recently vacated. The chair's resulting movements brought to mind a drunken shuffle.

"Well," George shrugged, "It's better than nothing, isn't it?"

Fred glared, "If you like it so much, how about if you give me your wand and I'll let you have this one."

Tonks was clearly trying not to laugh. She wasn't entirely successful. A strangled titter escaped from behind the hand over her mouth.

The chair continued to dance.

"Would you stop it already?" Fred frustratedly addressed the chair.

The chair danced out the door and down the hall.

"Don't you think… Shouldn't you go after it?" Ron asked.

Fred continued to glare.

"I know!" said Harry, "Let's add a dancing chair to the list of items on the scavenger hunt!"

"Let's not," said Fred.

George snickered.

Hermione pulled Trevor the frog from her pocket and began speaking softly to him.

Ron was at a loss. Was there such a thing as cruel and unusual treatment of a prison guard by and escaping inmate? And if so, would he, as a witness to the event, also be considered culpable… and prosecutable? He didn't know and he wasn't sure that he wanted to know. This was turning into a very bad day. Yes, he had (in theory at least) escaped from prison, but he couldn't leave the island, so it was pretty well a moot point. Also, he was stuck with what might as well have been a handful of refugees from an insane asylum- otherwise known as his friends and family.

Yes. It was definitely a bad day.

"I'm tired," said Hermione.

And that was another thing. Do souls grow back? Well- not entire souls, but if someone was missing only a small piece, would it come back?

Ron hoped so.

He loved Hermione, he really did, but the fact was, she wasn't really herself just now. Ron wasn't sure how to deal with that. How to deal with her.

"I need to sleep," she said, "and I'm thirsty."

Ron eyed her with misgiving as she took a sip of her Ginger Ale. He wasn't sure of the time, but it couldn't be _that_ late. As far as he could tell, it wasn't even time for dinner yet.

Hermione was practically in tears.

_Is that a side effect of a fractured soul?_ Ron wondered.

"Please? Ron? Could you fetch me a drink?" Hermione continued to sip Ginger Ale through the white plastic straw. Ron wasn't sure how to react.

George saved him the trouble, "Hermione," he said, "You do realize, don't you, that you've already got a drink?"

She looked down at her can of soda in consternation, "Oh."

"Right," said George, "Oh." He took the can from her and swished it around a bit, "And it's still half full."

"Can I have it back?"

George shrugged, "Don't see why not."

He took a generous swig and then handed it back to her. Her eyes filled with tears.

"Hermione," Ron rushed to her side, "What's the matter?"

She sniffled, "He… He _took_ some of my drink! I can't drink it anymore. I need a new one!"

"Well alight then," said George, "Can I have that one back if you don't want it? I've never had Ginger Ale before and I think that I just might be developing a taste for it."

Harry transfigured Fred's new 'wand' into a can of Ginger Ale and presented it to Hermione who gratefully accepted it.

Ron lunged in and grabbed it from her before she had a chance to pop the tab, "Hermione! You can't drink that!" he cried, "That's a _person_!" He turned to Harry, "Change him back! You can't go around turning people into carbonated beverages! What if someone _drank_ him? It would be murder!"

Harry shrugged carelessly and changed the guard-who-was-a-can-of-soda back into a deficient magic wand.

Hermione burst into tears. Full blown "Oh dear God, the place is going to _flood_" tears.

Ron did his best to calm her, "Shhh, it's okay. You didn't want to drink that anyway."

Tonks came over to lend a hand in the cheering department. She patted Hermione sympathetically on the back. "Don't worry. We'll find you a drink that didn't used to be a human being."

Hermione continued to snuffle for a while longer before eventually quieting down. Tonks kept up the therapeutic back pats. Ron picked up one of the remaining bottles of Butter Beer and offered it to the tearful love of his life.

"Thank you," she hiccupped softly and finally her tears stopped, "I think I need a nap," she confided, "I'm overtired. That's why I'm all weepy like his."

Ron took a careful look at her blotchy, red tearstained face. He couldn't disagree with her there. She certainly was weepy. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying and her lashes damp and spiky.

"Maybe you're right," he sighed, "You might feel better after a short rest."

Hermione offered a quavering smile, "Yes, I'd like a rest."

Now the only question was where to put her and what to do with the rest of the gang while she slept.

-

The group finally settled on the idea of tucking Hermione to sleep underneath an out of the way emergency staircase where she was unlikely to be found. When they found a likely staircase, they were surprised to find it's underside already occupied.

Sprawled under the staircase, snoring lightly, was the man who belonged to the voice which with Ron had conversed over the course of his short stay in his cell. The former employee of the Ministry.

"Should we wake him?" Tonks asked doubtfully.

"I don't know," Ron frowned, "but I definitely don't think that Hermione ought to be left here alone with him to sleep. I don't know if we can trust him," he paused significantly, "He worked for the Ministry."

Harry's expression darkened in anger, "The Ministry…"

Ron held up a hand to forestall any rash actions Harry might be tempted to take, "Yes, he worked for the Ministry, but I think that it was a long time ago. Maybe before they came under the influence of the Dark Lord. He's been here long enough to have lost most of his memories to the Dementors- even the bad ones. While I was talking to him, he couldn't even remember his own name."

"Well," said Tonks reasonably, "He's had time now and is doubtless quite well rested. I say that we wake him up and ask him his name."

"Yes, let's do that," agreed Fred and George.

Ron shrugged, "Alright, I suppose we might as well. There's not guarantee that he'll remember; he seemed not to be entirely in his right mind," on glanced around at his companions as he spoke. He hoped that they would not realize he had similar misgivings regarding their own lucidity, "But, we can give it a shot anyhow. He may surprise us."

Harry grabbed the human wand from Fred, who happened to be standing nearby, and jabbed the man in his side, "Wake up! We need to ask you something!"

The man mumbled and shifted in his sleep to try and avoid the prodding of the wand, "G'way. M'sleepin'."

Harry continued to prod.

One washed out blue eye popped open, "I'm not awake. Leave me alone."

More prodding from Harry, "Yes, you're awake," prod, "If you weren't," prod, "then you wouldn't have spoken to me," prod, prod.

"Well, I don't _want_ to be awake! Can't you just let me go back to sleep?"

Harry paused as though he were giving consideration to the man's request. Finally, he gave one last jab with the wand, "No. It's time for you to wake up. It's not nearly night yet! And anyhow, we've got questions for you."

"Questions?"

"Yes. Questions. Let's start with your name. What is it?" Harry looked at the man expectantly. Ron was also quite interested to hear the man's response.

"My name's Kevin," the man finally responded, "I'm pretty sure it is anyway."

"Kevin?" Harry asked, "Is that it? Is that the whole thing?" He was clearly disbelieving.

"Well, no," Kevin answered cautiously, "I don't think so, but I'm having some difficulty remembering the rest of it just now, so if you'll give me some time…"

"What if we don't want to give you time?" Harry interrupted, "What if we want to know now?"

"Then I won't be able to help you," Kevin grumbled. He turned over and attempted to resume sleeping.

Harry nudged his back with his foot, "Wake up, Kevin. We're not done with you yet."

"Shut up," Kevin's voice was muffled by his blanket, which he had pulled up over his head.

"Not. Going. To. Happen," Harry punctuated each word with a light kick.

Kevin sat up and glared at him, "I don't like you."

"Did I ask you to like me?" Harry asked, "No. I didn't. All I asked was for you to answer some questions."

"And I _did_ answer. If I _knew_ the rest of my name, I would have _told_ you. Do you think I _like_ it when you kick me?"

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"Well, I don't. Alright? I'd very much like it if you wouldn't do it anymore.

Harry shrugged, "I'll think about it."

Ron chose that moment to speak, "Er, Kevin? You said earlier that you had worked for the Ministry of Magic. Do you remember exactly what it was that you did for them?"

"Yeah," Kevin spat out, "I remember. They had me working as a liaison to the centaurs. Do you have any idea how _demeaning_ that is? Centaurs don't even _talk_ to wizards! I wasn't doing anything at the ministry except taking up space! And then, to add insult to injury, I get sent _here_! I don't even know _why_!"

_Liaison to the centaurs?_ Somehow Ron didn't think that was the sort of job that would attract a Death Eater. It didn't provide enough influence. And why had Kevin been sent to Azkaban?

A/N: Well. The end of another chapter- and this is my longest one yet! I hope you enjoy. You may have noticed that I stayed only in Ron's point of view for this chapter. The reason for this is that I'm trying to keep the two story lines (At Hogwarts and in Azkaban) roughly parallel and at the moment it's later in the day at Hogwarts than at Azkaban. Azkaban needs to catch up. The reason I've chosen Ron's point of view over Harry's is quite simple. At the moment, he is by far the most rational of the two just now. You may be wondering just what it is that's wrong with Harry, and I would like to assure you that an explanation will be forthcoming, but I haven't yet decided just when I'll be giving it. I do hope you'll keep reading long enough to find out.

actionmaster: I hope you enjoy this chapter. It has, as I mentioned above, absolutely nothing in it about what's going on 'outside'. I also thank you for your suggestion to change my setting to accept anonymous reviews. I hadn't realized that I wasn't allowing them. Unfortunately, changing my setting doesn't seem to have encouraged any more reviews. Oh well. There's always later.

littlelemon: I'm glad that you liked the cockroach. Azkaban somehow just seems the sort of place where one would find vermin like that. I'm sure that cockroach is not the last we'll have seen of Azkaban's bug life.

That's it for now, I hope you've enjoyed the read.

Cheers!


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